Number 1

In 1935-6 James John Crown and George Cox started building the first houses in Greville Road from the Coleridge Road end. They had in mind to build two detached houses facing each other which would be larger than all the others and therefore more expensive. Later on, those living at the other end of the road would refer to the Coleridge Road end as the ‘half a crown (two shillings and sixpence)’ end, much posher than the ‘tanner (sixpence)’ end which overlooked the railway sidings and adjoined the much older Victorian houses of Romsey Town.

Number 1’s first resident is listed as: William L. Briggs – Justice of the Peace and Alderman of the Borough. From 1936-7 he was the first Labour Mayor of Cambridge. He had started work on the railways at aged 15. Elected as a councillor for the Romsey Ward in 1920, he served for 36 years and chaired the Education Committee. He was awarded the OBE in 1941 for his Civil Defence activities and in 1951 he received an honourary degree from the University of Cambridge. Bill Briggs Court on St. Phillip’s Road between Thoday Street and Ross Street is named after him. Later in 1945 the residents at number 1 are listed as: William L. and Elizabeth M.A.Briggs. Crown and Cox had built houses numbers 6 and 8 at the same time as number 1 but then with no potential buyer for the second detached house on the north side they scrapped the idea and proceeded to build numbers 2 and 4.